There's A New Number 2 In Solar Use

Bloomberg's Chisake Watanabe reports Japan is set to become the world's second-largest solar power consumer, once government incentives kick in for producers to start blanketing the country in panels.

Bloomberg's New Energy Finance unit is calling for at least $9.6 billion in new installations with 3.2 gigawatts of capacity — about equal to the output of three atomic reactors.

Shares of First Solar, Kyocera and Trina were all trading higher today after Industry Minister Yukio Edano announced that the producer incentives are about three times the cost for conventional energy.

Japan is surpassing Italy and Germany to nab the second spot. China remains the world leader in solar.